diff --git a/Source/cmNinjaNormalTargetGenerator.cxx b/Source/cmNinjaNormalTargetGenerator.cxx
index 6df088a2bf..3fbbdda716 100644
--- a/Source/cmNinjaNormalTargetGenerator.cxx
+++ b/Source/cmNinjaNormalTargetGenerator.cxx
@@ -1450,6 +1450,14 @@ void cmNinjaNormalTargetGenerator::WriteLinkStatement(
     }
   }
 
+  // If we have any PRE_LINK commands, we need to go back to CMAKE_BINARY_DIR
+  // for the link commands.
+  if (!preLinkCmdLines.empty()) {
+    std::string const homeOutDir = localGen.ConvertToOutputFormat(
+      localGen.GetBinaryDirectory(), cmOutputConverter::SHELL);
+    preLinkCmdLines.push_back("cd " + homeOutDir);
+  }
+
   // maybe create .def file from list of objects
   cmGeneratorTarget::ModuleDefinitionInfo const* mdi =
     gt->GetModuleDefinitionInfo(config);
@@ -1490,13 +1498,6 @@ void cmNinjaNormalTargetGenerator::WriteLinkStatement(
       fout << src->GetFullPath() << "\n";
     }
   }
-  // If we have any PRE_LINK commands, we need to go back to CMAKE_BINARY_DIR
-  // for the link commands.
-  if (!preLinkCmdLines.empty()) {
-    std::string const homeOutDir = localGen.ConvertToOutputFormat(
-      localGen.GetBinaryDirectory(), cmOutputConverter::SHELL);
-    preLinkCmdLines.push_back("cd " + homeOutDir);
-  }
 
   vars["PRE_LINK"] = localGen.BuildCommandLine(
     preLinkCmdLines, config, fileConfig, "pre-link", this->GeneratorTarget);
diff --git a/Tests/RunCMake/AutoExportDll/sub/CMakeLists.txt b/Tests/RunCMake/AutoExportDll/sub/CMakeLists.txt
index 8b70e7dfad..484659d114 100644
--- a/Tests/RunCMake/AutoExportDll/sub/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/Tests/RunCMake/AutoExportDll/sub/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ if(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "MSVC")
   # Try msvc "big" object format.
   target_compile_options(autoexport2 PRIVATE /bigobj)
 endif()
+add_custom_command(TARGET autoexport2 PRE_LINK COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E true)